I'm honoured, thrilled and stunned to
be able to say I found out earlier this week that I got
a Canada Council grant for a YA book I've been working
on! To have this vote of confidence from Canada Council
is such a heady thing. I'm over the moon and have never
felt more like a Canadian writer.

Recently I also learned, to my immense joy,
that Yesterday
made the Canadian
Library Association's Young Adult Book Award shortlist
along with 9 other fantastic books: 40 Things I Want
to Tell You (Alice Kuipers), Bright's Light (Susan
Juby), The Calling (Kelley Armstrong), The Last
Song (Eva Wiseman), My Book of Life by Angel (Martine
Leavitt), One Good Hustle (Billie Livingston),
The Reluctant Journal of Henry K. Larsen (Susin
Nielsen), Such Wicked Intent (Kenneth Oppel), and
What Happened to Ivy (Kathy Stinson). You can see
the complete lists for the CLA Book of the Year for Children
Award, the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrators
Award and the CLA Young Adult Book Award here.
Congrats to all the CLA-nominated authors!

Before these two wonderful pieces of news
good luck was in short supply (the publishing business
is hard, hard, hard) and it means so much to me
to have this recognition from other Canadians. It would
be impossible for me to overstate that. And if it happens
that there's another tough patch around the corner, these
two things will see me through it.

Finally, before I go I want to share the
stunning cover of the Chinese edition of My
Beating Teenage Heart. Four copies arrived from my
agent yesterday and I keep wandering over to the sideboard
to stare at them. Aren't they lovely?

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About Post Author

Canadian/Irish novelist. Film school grad. Billy Bragg fan. Time traveller. Firm believer in the John Lennon quote, "If someone thinks that love and peace is a cliché that must have been left behind in the Sixties, that's his problem. Love and peace are eternal."